France triples Free’s 1800MHz spectrum

14 September 2015 |

Arcep, the French regulator, has tripled Free’s spectrum in the 1800 megahertz band to 15 megahertz, as part of its plan to refarm the band for 4G services.

Free’s rivals, Bouygues, Orange and SFR will have to relinquish part of their
spectrum in the band so that frequencies can be reassigned. They still have 20
megahertz each, and Free still lags behind with 15 megahertz — but that is
still three times what it has at the moment.

The new spectrum allocations will come into effect on May 25 2016, said
Arcep.